The notion of setting a political satire squarely in the middle of a
high school student body campaign fuels ‘Election,’ a comedy that is
clever and observant, yet uncomfortably cold and condescending.
Director Alexander Payne and his co-writer Jim Taylor have adapted Tom
Perrotta’s novel into a film that is always perceptive and often funny,
but so contemptuous of its characters that it’s difficult to actually
enjoy.

High school teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) and star student
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) have very different perspectives on the
student body election that changed both their lives - surprisingly,
Jim’s rather more than Tracy’s. At the outset, Jim is aware that his
best friend and colleague’s affair with the underage Tracy ruined the
man’s marriage and job, while the high school girl’s life plows
forward, her ambition to get ahead superceding all else. Jim thinks he
holds no grudge, but when Tracy seems to be running unopposed for
student president, Jim decides that democracy will best be illustrated
if she has an opponent and persuades dim but popular jock Paul Metzler
(Chris Klein) to run against her. Tracy is furious, becoming even more
so when Paul’s sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell) throws her hat into the
ring on an anarchic note, vowing to dismantle the student body
apparatus altogether if elected.

‘Election’ works schematically, with Tracy’s insufferably perky,
ferocious ambition, Jim’s sanctimonious resentment and Paul’s clueless
meandering through the process all reminiscent of behavior detectable
in actual political campaigns. Witherspoon particularly gives such an
intense performance that she exudes a sort of magnetism at the same
time that her character is repellent - this kind of focused energy
cannot be ignored. The odd thing about Tracy is that she doesn’t do
anything genuinely horrible; it’s her overall, self-serving phoniness
more than any single action that makes her scary. Jim, on the other
hand, is able to seem well-intentioned, even though he betrays the
trust of everyone around him. At the mercy of his own impulses, he does
give some genuine thought to the fates and feelings of those around him
- just not enough to keep him ethical in word and deed. Broderick’s
gee-whiz manner helps underscore Jim’s view of himself as a nice guy.
Klein, meanwhile, makes Paul’s thick-headed but good-hearted outlook
amusing.

The ‘Election’ DVD comes with an audio commentary from
director/co-scenarist Payne, who helpfully shares what effect he’s
going for with individual shots and visual motifs. His observations are
interesting, even if they give us cause to reflect that if the details
require this much explanation to be noticed, perhaps they’re a bit too
subtle to achieve the intended effect the first time around.

We’ve all seen real-life elections like ‘Election,’ disillusioning and
demoralizing affairs in which apathetic voters are confronted with the
evil of two lessers. These face-offs would be tragic if they weren’t so
hopelessly ridiculous. The subject is always a ripe target for comedy,
and Payne and Co. strike some bull’s-eyes. However, because the film is
so relentlessly critical of the characters (all hypocrites and/or
idiots), these aren’t people we want to spend a lot of time with; they
make Payne’s point while wearing out their welcome before they leave.
It’s possible, therefore, to appreciate what ‘Election’ accomplishes
without exactly liking it.